Beaudesert has once again supported a number of different charitable causes this year and, in so doing, we hope to have fostered in the children the importance of helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

We supported some national events such as the British Legion (at our Remembrance Day service), Sports Relief and MacMillan Cancer Support (by taking part in the world’s biggest coffee morning).

This year we have been very involved with the Stroud Foodbank, a local charity which provides food for people in crisis. As a school we collected food for our Harvest Festival service and during the Spring term some Year 8 girls helped at the foodbank each Tuesday during activities. Every week they would either sort food into categories and dates, clean furniture, sort bed linen and curtains and sometimes do some filing in the office. At the end of the summer term some Year 8s and staff helped the foodbank by asking shoppers at Tesco in Stroud to donate some of their weekly shop to the collection points.

The children themselves helped with a number of specific charities. 8JB raised £350 for the Gloucestershire Deaf Assocation by selling hot chocolate with cream, sprinkles and marshmallows; 5MB raised £150 for the NSPCC by holding a cake sale; an intrepid group of Year 8 hikers, led by Mr Tiley, walked the “Beacons Bimble” and raised over £4000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust, who were also the recipients of money raised by the Spring Fling disco.

We continued our on-going collection of sports kit and books for children in Africa, cricket kit for children in the West Indies and ring pulls from cans for Philippino adults to enable them to make items such as belts, bags and bracelets to raise money for their children’s education. Beaudesert families collected a horse trailer full of warm coats for Syrian refugees in response to the Coats2Syria appeal. In March Dick Moore, from the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, gave a fascinating and heartfelt talk to parents entitled ‘Coping with your Emerging Adolescent – how to help Children Tick’. £460 was raised for this very worthwhile charity.

The Beaudesert Autumn Charity Fair was well supported yet again and raised £9400 for Hft (previously the Home Farm Trust), a national charity which provides services for people with learning disabilities, and the Family Haven which helps disadvantaged and vulnerable families in Gloucester. Winston’s Wish, the NSPCC and Teenage Cancer Trust were the beneficiaries of the collection at the school Carol Service, with each of the charities receiving £560.

We continued our link with Widden School, a multicultural primary school in Gloucester, with reciprocal visits for Year 4 children. We hope that this link has given all the children involved the chance to understand a little about the lives of other children from different backgrounds and faiths.